Monday, April 21, 2008

Body Lesson

I really enjoyed this lesson. Jenny Seville has phenomenal work. I think I’ve seen her work in MoMa about 3 years ago. During this lesson, I thought of my friend Diane, who is a transgendered person. I met her at a gallery. She did a documentary style piece which was a series of interviews about people who are put down in our society for having difference that they can’t control. I use to pity these people, but now have only compassion and high hopes for them.

I was very interested to understand William Pope L’s work more. On his site for the Black Factory, it reads, “The Black Factory contends that blackness is limited not by race but by our courage to imagine it differently.” To me, what he is doing is not just being an artist but he is being a cultural anthropologist as well. Race is NOT BIOLOGICAL! Race is 100% SOCIAL. It’s a social construct used to separate one group of people from another. From numerous DNA sampling experiments, it was reported that an African American, teenage girl was closer genetically to a White Swedish male than other black teenage girls involved. He’s addressing these social issues to people, not to alienate but to make them question racial stereotypes and consumer culture.

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